Correct storage of Fruit & Veg
Posted by Phytopath on Oct 30, 2011
When you shop for fruit and vegetables, do you bring the produce home and put it in the crisper section of the refrigerator?
I do.
Well apparently there is a correct, or optimum way to store mixed fruit and vegetables (short term), because they are not all compatible.
Much like companion planting, perhaps we could plant our vegies into beds that are the same as the compatibility groups for storage. That way, we would know to store the vegetables together that grow in the bed together. Just a thought.
Here’s how it works.
Fruit and veg are divided into five different groups according to storage temperature.
This in part, is to stop one food group tainting another with its odour.
Another important factor in short term storage is the relative humidity.
The five storage groups are:
1. Temperate fruit and veg that are not cold sensitive. Storage temperature is zero degrees Celsius.
2. Fruit and veg that are moderately cold sensitive. Storage temperature 7-10 degrees Celsius.
3. Tropical fruit and veg that are cold sensitive. Storage temperature 13 degrees Celsius.
4. Pineapple. Store at 20 degrees Celsius.
5. Un-refrigerated storage. Produce in this group include; garlic, onion, potato and nuts.
Another thing to consider with storage is Ethylene.
Ethylene gas is a hormone that plants produce.
It can hasten the ripening process of some fruit, turn broccoli yellow and cause cut flowers to die quicker than expected.
Some fruit give off a lot of ethylene (perhaps you could liken this to some people who eat a lot of beans) and some vegetables are very sensitive to ethylene. So do not store them together.
Below is a list of ethylene producing fruit for each of the groups.
Group 1. Apple, apricot, fig, kiwi fruit, nectarine, peach, pear and plum.
Group 2. Avocado, honeydew melon, guava, passionfruit, rockmelon (cantaloupe) and tomato.
Group 3. Banana, cherimoya, guava, mango, pawpaw, plantain, rambutan and mature green tomato.
Group 4. Pineapple. 
